by Kat Ainsworth.
Published by Skyhorse Publishing,
307 West 36th Street,11th Floor,
Dept. TGM,
New York, NY 10018.
Price: $24.99 at most bookstores.
This 316-page softbound volume carries a sub-title of “A Comprehensive Guide to Choosing and Using the Right Firearms for Big and Small Game.”
Following the usual Acknowledgments and Foreword are 32 well-illustrated chapters, starting with Why We Hunt. (Chapter 32 is a lengthy glossary, and is not illustrated, nor is the Index.) The use of the word Comprehensive in the sub-title is appropriate, as Chapters 28 through 31 are devoted to self-defense, baiting, gear, and meat processing. Trespassers sometimes become belligerent if confronted, and the 2004 Wisconsin case is an excellent example of what can happen; within minutes six people lay dead, shot by a trespassing hunter.
Baiting is not legal in all states, so check your local laws prior to hunting over or in a baited area. (This hunter once hunted in northern Canada near the dump across an inlet from a commercial ‘hunting camp.’ Never saw a bear, but found prints that at least one had been in the area.) The chapter (31) on meat processing is excellent, but some meat is spoiled in the field by not field-dressing it properly, if at all. (The term—field dressing— is in the Glossary, but it could be useful for less experienced hunters to have covered it with sketches in Chapter 31.) Some recipes would have been a nice touch at the end of Chapter 31. This volume is lavishly illustrated with color photographs. Not every page has a photo, but some pages have more than one.
Subject chapters vary in length. As an example, Chapter 21, Actions, is four pages, while Chapter 22, 1911 History, is 18 pages in length, and Chapter 26, Cartridges, contains 74 pages. Even the Glossary covers 28 pages. Chapters devoted to individual handguns usually have a Specs table nearby listing such info as: Model, Caliber, Capacity, Barrel Length, Overall Length, Weight, etc. The cartridges featured generally have a Specs table also, providing such info as Parent Case, Case Length, Primer, Overall Loaded Length, SAAMI Pressure, and if extensive shooting was done, accuracy and velocities at certain distances. Kat Ainsworth has definitely been thorough in her coverage.
If you are interested in hunting with a handgun, regardless of type, this is a “must have” book for your reference shelf. You may not agree with all of the material, if you are already a handgun hunter, but you will have difficulty arguing with success. — Larry Sterett
